Wednesday, June 06, 2007

There Could Be A New Obstacle In the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Posted date: 04-06-2007
By Sovannarith
Samleng Yuvachun Khmer

Translation from Khmer by The Khmer Rouge Trial Web Portal

Civil society organizations have shown their concern that there will be a new obstacle in the legal procedures of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal although the Cambodian and international co-judges agreed to sit in the plenary session on May 31 to discuss the internal rules in order to urge the process of the tribunal.

Recently, the National Assembly has been discussing the drafts of the criminal legal procedures in which some articles will be used in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. However, around 10 per cent of those drafts doesn't conform to the internal rules of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and the international criminal law, which it can lead to another obstacle in urging the process of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

To make the drafts of the penal code become laws so that the Khmer Rouge can use in its process in 2008, National Assembly's members, who are discussing the drafts, must verify the laws clearly in order find justice for more than 2 million victims who died during the Pol Pot Killing Fields.

Chhang Youk, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), said that he hadn't studied the new problem which might cause another obstruction to the legal procedural practice of the Khmer Rouge tribunal yet. "If they want to create obstacle, they can," he said.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal which has also been participated by the United Nations practices in accord to some articles of the Cambodian penal code whose drafts are being discussed by the National Assembly. However, these laws do not conform to the international law. The legal procedural practice in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal will use the international criminal law according to the agreement between the government of Cambodia and the UN.

As a result, the leaders of civil society organizations consider the problems as a new obstacle to delay the process of legal procedural practice in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. It should be noticed that the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has only 3 years in which it has spent 1 year already.

Sok An, who is in charge of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and who negotiated with the UN, denied the accusations. He said the Cambodian and international judges must not only respect the agreement between the government of Cambodia and the UN and that but the court must also pay respect to the laws and regulations which are the 'internal' laws of Cambodia. Those problems were not difficult, he said.

Marcel Lemonde, co-investigating judge of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, claimed that the penal code which the National Assembly of Cambodia was discussing did not cause any 'serious' obstacle to the adoption of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal's internal rules.

Meanwhile, some civil society organizations including Center for Social Development (CSD), Human Rights organization ADHOC, and the DC-Cam, which are funded by international organizations, are working actively to educate people about the importance of the Khmer Rouge court.

Reach Sambath, spokesman to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, once said that co-prosecutors had not accused anyone officially yet and that the Khmer Rouge Tribunal had received a lot of legal complaints from Cambodians living both inside and outside Cambodia. In those complaints, they insisted for compensations from the former Khmer Rouge leaders who had killed their family members, he said.

Reach Sambath claimed that the compensations for many Cambodians were not possible since there could be a for-all-together compensation building some achievement for the country.

Recently, the DC-Cam has distributed historical books about the Khmer Rouge regime to more than 200 high schools around Cambodia to help young Cambodians understand clearly about the history of the Khmer Rouge leadership which caused the killings of more than 2 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979.

(Informal Translation)
Extracted from Samleng Yuvachun Khmer, vol. 14, #3051, Friday, June 2, 2007

3 comments:

Khmer Young said...

Khmer Rouge tribunal is just a tool of Hun Sen to legitimize the aggression of Yuan as well as his so-called CPP front in freeing from KR.

But KR trial cannot move forward, because:
1. KR is Yuan
2. CPP is KR
3. China is KR

Cambodian innocent people only who are spoiled and brainwashed; and have been suffered and killed grossly...

Otherwise, thanks all translating volunteers.

KY

Anonymous said...

Wrong, KR is Ah Khmer-Yuons and
they both hated Yuons the same way.
And they both want to steal lands
from Yuon... . Need I say more?

Anonymous said...

Another obstabcle: I am shock, shock, shock!